‘Oh no, I told her not to wait up for me before I left for your party. She was so pleased I’d been invited, and that Mum had let me spend the night away from home. She’s always been a better sport than Mum! She even gave me the key to her house so I wouldn’t have to wake her. Mum would have waited up, counting down the minutes,’ Patsy predicted bitterly. ‘I just let myself in and helped myself to her gin.’

Juliet couldn’t help but grin at this matter-of-fact piece of pragmatism. ‘Good for you,’ she said approvingly.

‘And then what?’ Jasper pressed.

‘Nothing,’ Patsy said, sounding confused. ‘My dad picked me up from my auntie’s place about eleven the next morning and brought me home, and I’ve been home ever since. And then I read in the papers today that he died!’

She took a deep, shaky breath. ‘I thought someone would come! I thought he’d be found. I didn’t know he was dead … I wouldn’t have left him, if I’d known.’ Her voice was beginning to rise into a hysterical wail again, and Juliet quickly grabbed her arm and squeezed it tight.

‘You didn’t do anything wrong! And you’ve nothing to feel guilty about. Listen to me,’ Juliet said forcefully. ‘It wasn’t your fault. None of it was – how could it be? He was driving. The accident had nothing to do with you.’

Patsy sniffed. ‘Yes, that’s true,’ she agreed, feeling a little better.

‘And you could hardly be found alone with a man in his car, could you? Not someone with his reputation,’ Juliet put all the scorn she could into her voice. ‘Your dad would have scalped you.’

‘That’s right, he would,’ Patsy admitted nervously. He still would, she thought uneasily, if he ever found out.

‘OK, you had to run off. And anybody would have thought the same thing – that someone would have heard the smash and come to investigate it. It wasn’t your fault that they didn’t. If the collision was as gentle as you said, and the snow muffled the sound … Well, you weren’t to know that, were you? You did the right thing,’ Juliet reiterated firmly. ‘You just remember that. All right? You looked after yourself, and we girls have to do that in this wicked, rotten old world. Right?’ She knew this last bit of bravura would appeal to the drama queen in Patsy, and sure enough, she saw the other girl’s head come up.

‘That’s so true,’ she said, so solemnly that Jasper had to turn his head away and bite back the snort of laughter that threatened to erupt from his throat.

Patsy nodded and sniffed. ‘All right, Juliet, I just won’t think about it,’ she said meekly.